52 ANNALS OF THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, CALCUTTA. P. geminiflorus. 
petiole with a few spines longer than others; in the leaves of ihe flowering 
panicle the sheaths are less spinous and at times the spines are short and tuber- 
culiform. The petiole is very short in the leaves of the panicle, and is more elon- 
gate and more prickly in young plants; the rhachis is prickly on the upper 
surface in its first portion. The leaflets are as in the type, but are in addition 
furnished above on the mid-costa with a few conspicuous bristles. at times 
10—15 wm, long. The female spadiz is as in type, but the flower-bearing branch- 
lets are usually more slender and have the spathels expanded more suddenly, 
more concave and almost bracteiform.  Involueres of the flowers almost explanate, 
disciform, usually distinctly formed by two imbricate bracts. The fruiting perianth 
has the calyx glabrous, the divisions on the corolla covered with short stiff 
appressed hairs, and the three lobes of the staminal urceolum alternating with 
the segments of the corolla, thick, triangular and acutely keeled. Fruit (not 
quite mature) globular-turbinate, perhaps smaller than in type, otherwise identical ; 
scales in 37 longitudinal series. 
Hasirat.—The Island of Billiton in the Sunda Strait (Heyne No. 6 and 2428 bis 
in Herb. Bogor and Beccari). 
Osservations.—It differs from the peninsular plant in the leaf sheaths more 
spinous ; in the leaves with prickly rhachis ; in the leaflets with long bristles on 
the mid-costa ; in the spadix not: having so thick flower-bearing branchlets, and in 
. the spathels miha more spreading and almost bracteiform limb. 
Prare 32.—Plectocomiopsis geminiflorus vam. billitonensis Bece—The end of a 
plant with immature fruits ; one of the uppermost leaves. From Heyne’s spécimen 
in Herb. Becc. 
X 
16. PLECTOCOMIOPSIS GEMINIFLORUS var. BORNEENSIS Becc. 
| Plectocomiopsis sp. Beec. in Winkler Beitr. ete. in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. 48, 
(1912), 92. : 
P. borneensis Becc. Mss. name in Herb. Hort. Bot. Bog.; Heyne, ? Nuttige 
Pl. van Nederl. Ind. (1913) 103. 
Calamus triqueter. Bece. Malesia, iii, 62. 
Myrialepis triqueter. Becc. in Hook. f. FI. Brit. hid vi, 480. Heyne. 
Nutt. Pl. van Nederl Ind. (1913), 103. 
f 
Description.—Sheathed stem of the upper part- of the flowering plant about 
3 cm. in diameter, subterete, more or less distinctly trigonous in young individuals. 
Leaf sheaths striate and armed with numerous, small, scattered spines 5—7 
mm. long at most but frequently "less, or also tubereuliform; in young leaves the 
mouth of the leaf-sheaths has a more or less lacerated margin and at first is pro- 
duced into a thinly membranous, deciduous, at times elongate, lacerate, ocreiform 
appendage. The petiolar part is short in the upper leaves, and- apparently is 
elongate in the lower ones. Leaflets as in type, having smooth margins and a 
few bristles, short or long, on the mid-costa above. The flowering female panicle 
is apparently very large; an entire partial inflorescence seen by me, probably one 
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